Mauricio Alejandro Torres v. State of Arkansas

── Mauricio Alejandro Torres v. State of Arkansas ── Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas Date: April 30, 2026 Category: General Cite as 2026 Ark. 88 SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS No. CR-23-618 Opinion Delivered: April 30, 2026 MAURICIO ALEJANDRO TORRES APPELLANT APPEAL FROM THE BENTON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 04CR-15-551] V. HONORABLE BRAD KARREN, JUDGE STATE OF ARKANSAS APPELLEE AFFIRMED. RHONDA K. WOOD, Associate Justice This is an appeal from a capital-murder conviction. Mauricio Torres was convicted of capital murder and first-degree battery. He received life in prison for murder and twenty years for battery. Torres makes two arguments on appeal—the capital-murder statute is unconstitutionally vague and the circuit court should have granted a mistrial based on the medical examiner’s prejudicial comments. We reject both arguments and affirm. This case has been before us twice already. The first time, Torres received a death sentence, but this court reversed and remanded for a new trial. See Torres v. State, 2019 Ark. 101, 571 S.W.3d 456. The second time, Torres was again convicted by a jury of capital murder. During sentencing, a witness leapt from the witness stand and charged toward Torres. The circuit court granted a mistrial of both the sentencing phase and the guilt phase. The State filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which we denied. State v. Torres, 2021 Ark. 22, at 11, 617 S.W.3d 232, 238.  The following facts emerged from this third jury trial in which the State sought the death penalty. We have limited our description of the horrendous facts as there is no sufficiency-of-the-evidence claim on appeal. The victim was Torres’s six-year-old son, Maurice “Isaiah” Torres. Isaiah died in March 2015 after returning from a family camping trip to Missouri. During the trip, Isaiah complained about stomach pains, and Torres became angry because Isaiah was not helping clean up. Torres then beat Isaiah with a stick, took Isaiah inside the camper, and placed, or caused the placement, of a stick inside Isaiah’s rectum. Isaiah fell on the stick, causing internal perforations. The family left Missouri and drove home to Bella Vista, Arkansas. Isaiah was unresponsive, and paramedics were called. He was transported to the hospital, where he died. The medical examiner testified that Isaiah died from an abdominal infection caused by anal-rectal trauma. The perforation caused bacteria to seep into his abdomen, which caused infection, sepsis, and death. The medical examiner also testified that Isaiah had suffered from severe abuse. On his own and not responding directly to a question, the examiner said, “[This child-abuse case was] one of the worst ones in my career, and I’ve seen some pretty bad ones.” Defense counsel objected to this statement and moved for a mistrial. The circuit court sustained the objection but did not declare a mistrial. The court instructed the jury to disregard comments comparing the case to any others. The jury returned a guilty verdict. After the sentencing hearing, Torres received life in prison for murder and twenty years for battery. 2  Torres raises two issues on appeal. First, he argues that the definition of capital murder under which he was charged is unconstitutionally vague. We have consistently rejected this argument. Second, Torres argues that the court should have granted a mistrial when the medical examiner stated that this was one of the worst child-abuse cases he’d seen in his career. We hold that this drastic remedy was unnecessary because the State did not elicit the testimony; the court granted a limiting instruction; and the court noted that the testimony had no apparent impact on the jury. Regarding his first is